Google Maps starts showing UK pump prices as diesel hits record £2 a litre

Live prices arrive on Google Maps

From Thursday, a search for forecourts in Google Maps will display each station's location and its petrol and diesel prices, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. The prices come from the government's Fuel Finder scheme. Waze already offers the feature, and the same prices appear on individual forecourt listing pages. Searching for 'petrol' or 'fuel' in either app brings up nearby stations with current pricing. Minister for energy consumers Polly Billington framed the launch as a way to help drivers save money at the pump.

Accessing the cheapest fuel should be simple, which is why it is a game-changer for near real-time fuel prices to be shown on Google Maps for the first time in the UK, helping drivers find the best deal and save money at the pump.

How the data is kept current

Forecourts in the UK, including Northern Ireland, have been legally required to report any price change to Fuel Finder within 30 minutes since 2 February. Scott Benson, founder of Fuel Finder UK, told The Journal that the Fuel Finder site pulls fresh data every five minutes, and he expected Google to 'do something similar'. Google said it would check the data independently and would not display prices it believed were out of date. Sarah-Jayne Williams, director of product partnerships for Google Maps and Waze, put the approach this way.

Accuracy is very important, so we will still show the petrol station and where it is, but you'll only see a price if we have high confidence that it's the right price.

Clare Lafferty, director at the price comparison site PetrolPrices, said the government feed alone does not provide the coverage and accuracy needed. PetrolPrices identified 200 forecourts in September that it did not believe had updated their diesel prices in time. What Car? warned that the real-time data is 'full of inaccuracies and out-of-date information'. The Retail Motor Industry Federation said its members were complying with the requirement.

Record prices behind the launch

Diesel topped £2 a litre for the first time, and the RAC recorded 199.18p per litre last Monday, passing the previous record set after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The average diesel price had climbed to 200.11p by Wednesday, while petrol stood at 174.89p, according to the RAC. Petrol prices were between £1.75 and £1.94 a litre, according to the RAC. Simon Williams, RAC policy head, called the £2 level 'a price threshold no one wanted to cross'. The Guardian reported that diesel has risen by more than 40% since late February, and the diesel price has since fallen by 2p. The AA estimates that an average 55 litre tank of diesel costs around £110, and petrol around £96.

LBC reports that Russian diesel exports have dropped sharply after Ukrainian drone attacks hit refineries, including a key facility near Moscow damaged last month. Iran's effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is also limiting fuel supply, according to the same report.

Competition and pricing concerns

Edmund King, president of the AA, welcomed the change, saying:

Getting transparent fuel prices on to Google Maps is a massive step forward and means most drivers will have easy access to pump prices.

King also argued that more transparent prices should reduce the price-matching between stations that is currently seen in many areas. Luke Bosdet, an AA spokesperson, said the launch would not necessarily reduce interest in existing apps, given the demand for fuel price information. He said the development could create problems for the fuel trade by exposing forecourt pricing tactics that keep local prices artificially high. The Competition and Markets Authority cautioned fuel retailers in August that many were still slow to pass on falls in wholesale diesel prices.